Volume X, Issue 11 June 2008

The Congregation of St. Athanasius A Congregation of the Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II for the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite

http://www.locutor.net

@Contra Mundum@

NOTES FROM THE CHAPLAINFACING REALITIES,

LOOKING AT OPTIONS

While I do not speak officially, I am pleased to be with you

today, because I hope my presence as a Catholic priest who cherishes his Anglican background, will be of Christian comfort at a time tinged by that strange sadness of inevitability. Our hearts are heavy this week due to the recent developments regarding women bishops. But sadness is not an invitation to misery, or self-pity which, alas, has characterised these final phases of the Oxford Movement—rather I believe you are called to hope based on realism.

You are all asking: where do we go now? This question calls for realism and surely abandoning that recurring Anglo-Catholic tendency, grasping at fantasies and dreams.

The False Options

The timely warnings of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor and Cardinal Walter Kaspar should remind all concerned Anglicans of certain realities. But facing reality means first shooting down fantasies

that have emerged in recent decades, what I call the false options.

First of all, let us dismiss the concept of “flying bishops” and an “alternative jurisdiction” with “limited communion.” This is a theological and canonical absurdity. At best, this merely describes a pro-tem arrangement for the sake of distressed Catholic-minded clergy and laity in a time of transition and decision, and many of our friends in England regard it as such. At worst it is a recipe for bitterness, delusion and division. It raises ‘hope against hope’, another way of sliding back into fantasies and dreams.

So let me say at the outset, that I believe there is nothing to be said for attempting some kind of independent jurisdiction within an Anglican Communion which ordains women bishops, or condones this practice. Some people will strive to persuade you to “hang on” and find an oasis. That simply ends up as a retreat into congregationalism.

Those who would persuade you that this “flying bishop” structure has some future are usually the Affirming Catholics or well-disposed liberals. I wonder about their motives. I respect their right as liberal Christians, with or without Catholic opinions, to hold their own views, but I suspect that

any effort on their part to secure “flying bishops” as a viable option may be mainly a salve to their own consciences. They can assure themselves that they have “looked after the extremists,” and can present this to the public as “concern.” They may be quite sincere about this, but as they lack a Catholic mind on the essential nature of the Church and Holy Orders, one cannot take their proposals seriously, even if they are well meant.

The question of Anglicans becoming Eastern Orthodox is an interesting option. I respect those Anglicans who have done this, their trail blazed by the remarkable Archbishop Kallistos Ware, who was an influence during my Oxford years. But this is a difficult journey. It involves a total cultural “makeover,” and few of us are capable of that, especially in mid-life or sunset years. So I would dismiss this as, if not a false option, at least a burdensome and unnecessary one.

What then remains, apart from trying, and this will be futile in Australia, to seal yourself up in a parish or small group? There is only one real option—what you call “Rome” and what I call “home”; what some of you still call “Auntie”, but many millions call “Mother”.

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Looking at the Roman Option

The Roman option takes three forms, which I will explore.

1. The reconciliation of individuals with the Church. That has been going on for over four centuries and the statistics are higher in certain eras than many Anglicans imagine. However, focusing on clergy, at his first meeting with “interested” Anglican clergy in Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume made it clear that Apostolicae Curae still stands, that there can be no bargaining about Orders. Whatever scholarly arguments may be raised about Anglican Orders—and the question is admittedly more complex than it was in 1896—the fact that women are deemed to be priests by most Anglicans and that within a few years some of these will be deemed to be bishops, has made the question of Anglican Orders academic, even irrelevant. In some instances, as in the case of Monsignor Graham Leonard, former Bishop of London, conditional ordination would be feasible, but that is a detail. Anglican clergy who are reconciled to Rome, who seek Orders, and succeed in their petition, are ordained absolutely.

2. The “corporate reunion” model of an ‘Anglican Rite”. This is apparently what is being sought by the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC). I am not privy to negotiations, and Archbishop Hepworth who is here today would know more about this. In no way do I wish to “put him on the spot,” because there seems to be much hope around that this might

be possible. But a “corporate reunion” model logically applies only to an existing body like the TAC, hence to clergy and laity who have chosen to join that body in the past and any clergy and laity who choose to join that body with a view to benefiting from a corporate reunion arrangement. However, there is a third option which involves smaller groups.

3. The reconciliation of a parish or group. Ever since the Caldey affair, nearly a century ago, there has been reticence among Catholic bishops about groups of persons being reconciled together. But, putting to one side cases like the parish of Bethnal Green, the reconciliation of an Anglican parish so that it retains its identity is already an accomplished fact in the United States, in several instances. Moreover, this has included a recognition of some Anglican liturgical usages, what is popularly termed an “Anglican rite”, although it seems more “Sarum” than Anglican to this liturgist! Strictly speaking, this concession involves a specific indult. A “rite” spelt with a small “r”, should not be confused with the formal establishment of a Rite in terms of a structure, involving a distinct hierarchy and ecclesial autonomy, as in the case of the existing Catholic Eastern Rite Churches.

Possibilities and Problems

Looking at the options and returning to option 2. Would it be possible for those involved in a larger act of corporate reunion to become a distinct Rite in the Church, i.e., a Catholic Western Rite Church?

.The cautious answer I offer is Italianate—a “no”, but with a carefully qualified “yes” or “maybe” – in that order. If you mean Anglicans becoming a Rite within the Universal Church having a distinct hierarchy structured like the Ukrainians or Maronites, I would say “no”. There is no precedent for a body of Christians from the Reformation era forming a new Rite in the Universal Church. Moreover, the history of Eastern Rites is complex. Some, like the Maronites, can argue that they never left Roman communion and jurisdiction. However, the other communities returned to full communion as fully constituted Churches, and are recognised as such within the Universal Church.

I used the expression “a body of Christians from the Reformation era”. At present, as our most recent Roman directives indicate, strictly speaking we cannot apply the term “Church” to any Anglican body, within the current Anglican Communion or derived recently from it. That is one of the “hard sayings” I have to add today, a touch of unpalatable realism. But let me hasten to pour some oil into any wound I may have caused and add that qualified “yes” or “maybe”, which of course only suggests a speculative possibility. Could some special structure be formed within the Catholic Church that would maintain the human cherished connections, the good pastoral care, gracious spirituality, noble heritage and culture of all that is best in Anglicanism?

With his profound understanding of ecclesiology, our Holy Father

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Pope Benedict XVI will, I believe, do all that is possible to assist those Anglican Catholics who seek peace and unity in the Universal Church at this time. We may hope and pray that he will make it possible for option 3 to continue, for smaller groups, and for option 2 to develop in terms of some existing hierarchical structure being reconstituted within the Church. Being the Supreme Pontiff and ultimate lawmaker, with full and immediate jurisdiction, he can modify my initial “no”.

Furthermore, there is a new canonical precedent for a body that is not a full Rite, but which has its own bishop within the wider Church. This is the personal prelature. At present there is only one, the Prelature of the Holy Cross, Opus Dei. The Prelate of Opus Dei is a bishop without territorial jurisdiction, but he has spiritual jurisdiction over the members of “The Work”. This may well provide a model for coherent pastoral care and the spiritual flourishing of Anglicans who have been formally reconciled to the Universal Church but who want to retain a corporate identity.

Some will say, “But that Roman ‘personal prelate’ sounds much the same as one of our Anglican ‘flying bishops’?” That may seem to be so, but look very carefully at the context. The personal prelature is a distinct structure that has arisen within the Catholic Church, in no way contrary to her doctrines and canonical polity. A “flying bishop”, on the other hand, is an attempt to keep a kind of Catholic prelate operating within a wider ecclesial community which has in fact

abandoned him, a body now without any serious claim to apostolic succession because it ordains women. The “flying bishop” is an anomaly. He contradicts the very raison d’etre of the structure within which he is expected to operate—and that will become clearer when there are Anglican women bishops in Australia and England.

Other Local Considerations

What is not widely appreciated beyond these shores is the distinct make up and structure of the Anglican Church in Australia, very different from the Provinces of Canterbury and York. This is why you need to anticipate and watch what the Diocese of Sydney, and its affiliated dioceses, will do in the event of approval for and the consecration of women bishops. Will Sydney break away? But surely that is already happening. The Diocese of Sydney and its affiliates already constitute a distinct body, and Evangelical parish “plantings” are happening in various guises beyond the geographical confines of Sydney, even in this city. Moreover, do not be surprised if some existing Evangelical parishes take legal steps to separate from the local diocese and unite themselves to Sydney or to a bishop derived from Sydney, when the women bishops appear on the scene.

Therefore, let us end this fatuous talk of maintaining “limited communion” etc. Sydney rightly reminds you that you are either in communion or not in communion. And if you want an even clearer statement of that reality talk to the Eastern Orthodox about the meaning of apostolic communion and read

Summer Altar FlowersPlease sign up to bring flowers for one or more of the Sundays during the growing season. You may bring an arrangement from your own yard, a planter, or a store-bought bouquet. There are various sized vases in the sacristy if needed. You may take your flowers home with you after Mass. We will all enjoy the extra color in the chapel.

Vatican II, the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium.

The Ministry of Former Anglican Clergy

What then can we Catholics of the Roman Rite offer Anglican clergy who seek reconciliation with the See of Peter? In practical terms, celibates of stable life can be incorporated easily into the Catholic presbyterium, or fellowship of diocesan clergy.

In the case of married clergy we are discovering that they can be incorporated into the particular church, the diocese, even if there are difficulties. At present the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith places statistical limits on how many married priests can work in each diocese. That restricts what bishops may want to do, but the policy may change with the new circumstances that are unfolding. I hope that wider pastoral options will emerge, such as former Anglican

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SHORT NOTES

¶ Many thanks to all who contributed to the receptions on our patronal feast day, May 2nd, and after Fr. Bradford’s tenth anniversary Mass on May 30th.

¶ Father Bradford is especially grateful to all who attended his anniversary Mass on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, to Msgr. Helmick, pastor of Saint Theresa of Avila Parish for his many kindnesses during these ten years to Father Bradford and his family, and to the Congregation of St. Athanasius. We were very pleased to have Fr. Charles J. Higgins, pastor of Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Parish, Newton, as deacon of the Mass. He is a special friend. And the Revd. Deacon Michael J. Connolly, Archdeacon in Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church, Belmont, and frequent participant in our special services, served as Sub-deacon. We are also grateful to Mr. Fred Brewer, often a member of our Schola, who was organist and choirmaster on a rare day when our faithful organist James S. Reedy was unable to be with us.

¶ Congratulations to Fr. William Lohan on his ordination to the Sacred Priesthood on May 24th. Fr. Lohan celebrated his first Mass in his home parish, Saint Theresa of Avila, West Roxbury, at noon on Sunday, May 25th.

¶ Many thanks to those who read the Acts 2:1–11 lesson in foreign languages on the Solemnity of Pentecost. We had several readers, in Latin, Greek, Spanish, Dutch, Dinka and English.

¶ Travelers included Judie Bradford and son Jonathan who joined up with daughter Jessica on safari in northern Botswana, in late April. In May, parishioner Eva Murphy spent several weeks in Ireland doing research and visiting family.

¶ On May 19th Fr. Bradford blessed David Burt’s new home in Teaticket, near Falmouth, on Cape Cod. Parishioners were invited to attend.

¶ An Anglican Use Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas on July 10–12. Details were in the May issue of Contra Mundum and are available on the web site, http://www.anglicanuseconference.com.

¶ A year’s-mind Mass will be offered for the repose of the soul of parishioner Ronald Jaynes on Saturday, June 7th at 9 a.m. in the convent chapel. May he rest in peace.

¶ The Fifth Communion Service, composed by Leo Sowerby, will be used at Sunday Mass beginning June 1st. We first used this setting for a few weeks prior to the beginning of Lent, 2008. Copies will be available in the pews (and to take home, if you want to practice!)

¶ In July there will be a parish picnic at the rectory after the Sunday Mass on July 6th. There is Evensong and Benediction on Sunday, July 20th at 5 p.m.

This photo shows the welcome, in song and dance, for Judie and Jonathan Bradford who are arriving by Land Rover at Chitabe Camp in Okavango Delta of northern Botswana. Dr. Jessica Bradford, who had spent a month working in a clinic in Botswana, is part of the welcoming committee.

QUOTES FROM POPE BENEDICT XVI

“Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted.”

This was part of an address delivered to American Bishops in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2008.

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should not contemplate seeking priestly ministry within the Catholic Church in Australia. Having grown up in a vicarage, I can assure you that the quiet pace of a good vicarage and focused ministry to a small group of wonderfully committed people is an option not usually available in Australian Catholic parishes.

Words of Welcome

Let me conclude simply by welcoming you, by daring to welcome you, not with blaring triumphalism or earnest convert challenges, rather by quoting a wise Parish Priest I know. He is currently based in Birmingham. Like me, he worked for some years in the Roman Curia, but in a different department. This man of deep ecumenical

married priests working in parishes, and already we see this well established in Perth and Adelaide, and beginning in Melbourne.

One practical warning is needed here, and, again, I must be blunt. There is a wide cultural difference between a Catholic parish and an Anglican parish, not merely because most Catholic parishes are multi-ethnic etc., but because they are usually big and busy. Sixty people were at Mass this morning, on a Saturday, in my small “quiet parish” (well, it was the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes!), but approximately 340 will come to the Sunday Masses. So, Anglican clergy who are not prepared to work hard,

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NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

The doubt of Zacharias is, like the doubt of St. Thomas the

apostle, an indirect testimony; it brings out a supernatural fact. In this case the supernatural fact is the miraculous character of John's birth. With Elizabeth we are not, of course, in the presence of a mi-raculous phenomenon of transcen-dent glory as in the case of Mary's motherhood: Zacharias is truly the father of John the Baptist. Yet is was

commitment and experience put the realistic option in this human way and I address his words to you: “Brothers and Sisters, the door is open, the table is set and the kettle is on….”

Rev. Msgr. Peter J. Elliott

¶ Msgr. Peter Elliott is well known for his liturgical manuals, Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite and Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year. On June 15, 2007, Msgr. Elliot was consecrated as auxiliary bishop for Melbourne, Australia.

He delivered this address to Anglicans at the Annual General Meeting of Forward in Faith Victoria, in East St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, on February 11, 2006. This address was subsequently published in The Rock, a journal for Anglican traditionalists, Volume 24, No. 3, on September 15, 2006.

at the same time so evident a sign of God's favour to Elizabeth that Mary no longer hesitated in her mind as to the possibility of her own moth-erhood, the moment she heard the news from the angel that Elizabeth was with child.

Elizabeth's motherhood may be considered in terms of comparison, to enable us better to understand and measure the excellence of Mary's motherhood. With Elizabeth's moth-erhood God's action and grace sur-round, as with an odour of heavenly life, the laws of created life. With Mary it will be all heavenly life.

God's action is not merely the com-panion of created causality; it is su-preme, exclusive, absolutely uncon-ditioned by the created laws of life.

Anscar VonierThe Divine Motherhood (1921)

¶The Nativity of St. John, June 24th, falls on a Tuesday this year. Dom Anscar Vonier, O.S.B. (1875-1938) was of German origin and joined Buckfast Abbey, Devonshire, England, at age fourteen and became abbot in 1906. His book A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist, originally published in 1925, has been reissued by Ignatius Press.

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The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

On the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul Holy Church invites

us to think at the same time about two great heroes who died in her service. Considering Peter and Paul separately is enough of a task! But here they are together. So we are encouraged to think of them together.

We do not know how many times these two men met. Scripture records a few occasions. But one of those was in Antioch, and Paul had to put Peter right. Anyone who thinks this is not the way to treat the Prince of the Apostles has forgotten how outspoken St. Catherine of Siena could be to the Holy Father in her day. And reading of this confrontation at Antioch it is very hard to imagine St. Peter at this moment being concerned to interpret the mind of the Church. He was simply doing the best he could to solve an awkward social problem regarding Gentile converts to a faith originally made up of observant Jews.

The question for Peter and Paul and the question at every age of the Church is the same: is it wiser to go forward or to protect what we have? That is also a question regularly faced in the boardrooms of large corporations and over coffee in the mom and pop businesses across our country. But the comparison ends quickly.

The past reputation and product of a company in the competitive business world may not be worth much. But the first business of the Church is to safeguard a deposit

of revealed truth handed down to her by a Divine founder. And if we prove false to that trust, the Church unchurches herself!

The world often portrays the Church as an international conspiracy. But we know that the Catholic Church is a supernatural family, and that we are not only fellow citizens with Pope Benedict XVI but with Pope John Paul II, and, yes, with Saints Peter and Paul. We are privileged to be living in the age of great pontificates. It was journalist Carl Bernstein who told us in April that he found it amazing that at the end of the second millennium the single most important person in the world was a Catholic priest.

St. Paul once had to criticize St. Peter. The age-old question was, “is it wiser to go forward or to protect what we have?” And of course the answer is to do both: to go forward in Christ. On that day at Antioch Peter and Paul chose to go forward in Christ. They went

forward together. The Holy Father and the Catholic Church in our own day are not content just to criticize the false standards prevailing in an exhausted and disillusioned world that devalues the worth and dignity of each individual. The Church is also determined to set before the world the pattern of life ordered by Christ, of what civilization is meant to be when penetrated with and expressing the mind of Christ and to work with all those who, to any extent, carry that vision.

It is well to remember the symbols of Saints Peter and Paul. They bear sword as well as keys. Holy Church uses both. If Peter and Paul disagreed once, it was long ago. And they speak with one voice through the Catholic Church in our own day.

¶ This sermon was prepared by Father Bradford for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29th) in 2005, but was never preached at a Mass. This year the feast falls on a Sunday.

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their winning the sympathy of the people.Reprinted from Magnificat, August 2004, Vol. 6, No. 6, Page 413. With permission of Magnificat® USA, LLC, P. O. Box 822, Yonkers, New York 10704. To order call 1-866-273-5215 or Web site: www.magnificat.com. All rights reserved.

Blessed John davy

Religious and Martyr († 1537)

John Davy, a Carthusian choir monk and deacon, was one of

ten religious of the order’s London monastery, the Charterhouse, who on May 18, 1537 refused to join twenty of their fellow Carthusians in taking King Henry VIII’s odious anti-papal oath of supremacy. Eleven days later, the ten were brought to a London prison, where they were chained in a standing position with their hands bound behind their backs, left thus to starve to death. After learning of their fate, Margaret (Gigs) Clement, an adopted daughter of the martyr Saint Thomas More, bribed the jailer to let her enter the prison. Disguised as a milkmaid, she placed bits of meat into the mouths of the starving monks and cleaned their cell. When after some time the king expressed surprise that the prisoners were still alive, the jailer, fearing the king’s wrath, refused to allow Margaret to continue her missions of mercy. All but one of the men soon perished from hunger. John Davy died on June 8, 1537. Years later, on her deathbed, Margaret saw in a vision the martyred Carthusians she had fed standing round about her, inviting her to come with them to eternal life.Reprinted from Magnificat, June 2007, Vol. 9, No. 4, Page 122. With permission of Magnificat® USA, LLC, P. O. Box 822, Yonkers, New York 10704. To order call 1-866-273-5215 or Web site: www.magnificat.com. All rights reserved.

BRITISH MARTYRS

OVER the years 200 men and women have been beatified for

their heroic witness to the Catholic Faith in the British Isles during and after the Protestant Reformation. Here we continue brief mention of some of these individual martyrs.

Blesseds RichaRd leigh, RichaRd FloweR, edwaRd shelley, and RichaRd maRtin

Martyrs († 1588)

Richard Leigh, of Cambridge-shire, England, was ordained

to the priesthood in Rome. Soon after returning to England to minister to the country’s persecuted Catholics, he was captured and exiled. Undeterred, Father Leigh re-entered England, but in June of 1588 he was recaptured, and was later sentenced to death for being a priest. Richard Flower, of Anglesey, Wales, a young layman about twenty-one years old and the brother of a priest, was arrested in London by the Elizabethan authorities for assisting a priest. Edward Shelley, of Warminghurst, England, was likewise charged with assisting a priest. Richard Martin, an Oxford scholar from Shropshire, was charged with paying for a meal for the Blessed Father Robert Morton. Father Leigh and the three laymen were condemned to death by drawing and quartering, suffering together with Saint Margaret Ward and Blessed John Roche. At the London scaffold of Tyburn, all six martyrs were forbidden to say anything to the onlookers to prevent

The Congregation of Saint Athanasius

The Revd. Richard Sterling Bradford, Chaplain

Saint Theresa Convent Chapel

10 St. Theresa Ave. West Roxbury, Mass.

(Enter through the side door.)

Sundays 10:30 A.M. Sung Mass

Fellowship and Coffee in the Lounge after Mass

Rectory: 767 West Roxbury Pkwy. Boston, MA 02132-2121 Tel/Fax: (617) 325-5232 http://www.locutor.net

THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL

SOLEMN EVENSONG & BENEDICTION

Sunday, June 29, 20085:00 p.m.

Preacher: Fr. Charles J. HigginsChapel of

Saint Theresa of Avila ChurchWest Roxbury

a reception follows this service

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Contra MundumThe Congregation of St. Athanasius10 St. Theresa AvenueWest Roxbury, MA 02132

St. Theresa Church and Convent Chapel, West Roxbury, MA 02132 Pine Lodge Road (off St. Theresa Avenue)Park either in the church parking lot or on Pine Lodge Road. The side door of the convent is open during the time of our services.Directions by Car: From the North: Route 128 to Route 109, which becomes Spring Street in West Roxbury. Spring Street ends at a traffic light at Cen-tre Street in sight of the church. At this light bear left onto Centre St. and immediately turn right at the next light onto St. Theresa Ave. From the South: Route 1 north through Dedham to Spring Street. Turn right onto Spring Street then follow the directions above.From Dorchester and Mattapan: Cummins High-way to Belgrade Avenue to Centre Street left on St. Theresa Ave.From Boston: VFW Parkway to LaGrange Street. Turn left onto LaGrange Street, crossing Centre Street and turn right onto Landseer Street. Turn left into the church parking lot.Directions by Public Transportation: Orange line to Forest Hills terminal. Bus to West Roxbury. #35 bus to Dedham Mall. #36, #37, and #38 also stop at St. Theresa’s. Commuter train to West Roxbury Station is a short walk to St. Theresa’s. Departs from South Station, but no Sunday service is available.